February: Day 10: Holy Hieromartyr Haralambos

February: Day 10:
Holy Hieromartyr Haralambos
 
(The Abundance of the Fruits of the Earth is the Work of God's Blessing)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Hieromartyr Haralambos, whose memory is celebrated today, was the bishop of the city of Magnesia (in Thessaly). He lived and suffered for the name of Christ in the 2nd century A.D. during the reign of the pagan Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. As a true shepherd of the flock of Christ, Saint Haralambos supported his spiritual children in the faith and firmness of their Christian hopes during the cruel persecution of Christians by the pagans that broke out at that time. For this he was seized by the pagan authorities and brought to trial before the head of the region, Lucian. After Saint Haralambos resolutely refused to deny the Christian faith, the judges ordered that the sacred garments be removed from the valiant shepherd and that his body be torn with iron claws. At the same time, the iron claws straightened, and the body of the righteous man remained unharmed. Struck by this miracle, two servants, Porphyrios and Baptos, believed in Christ and before the ruler glorified the almighty power of Christ, strengthening those who suffered for His name, for which they were both beheaded with a sword. After this, many of the pagans came to the holy bishop and received baptism from him, confessing their sins before him. Those who were ill with various ailments received healing from him. The head of the Thessalian region, Lucian, not knowing what to do, went to the emperor himself and told him about everything that had happened in Magnesia.

Hearing that many of the pagans believed in Christ through Haralambos, the mad emperor became enraged and ordered three hundred of the fiercest soldiers to be sent to Magnesia to seize the bishop glorified by the Lord and bring him to Antioch. We will not tell about the brutal tortures to which the Holy Martyr Haralambos was subjected...

The enraged emperor finally decided to kill him with the sword. Arriving joyfully at the place of his execution, Haralambos sang songs of praise to the Lord and breathed his last before the destructive sword touched him. Before his death, the Holy Martyr prayed to the Lord: “Lord! Glory to Your name: let there be no hunger, no pestilence, no harmful air that ruins the fruits of the earth in the place where my body will be buried and where they will remember me. Let there be peace in that place, health for bodies, salvation for souls, an abundance of wheat and wine. Lord God! You know that people are flesh and blood; forgive them their sins, give them an abundance of the fruits of the earth, so that for their labors they will be sufficiently satisfied and glorify You, the giver of all good things. Let the dew that comes from You be a healing for them; pour out Your grace on everyone.”

II. a) Is it not significant, Orthodox Christian, that the Saint of God, Haralambos, when departing from this world , prayed to the Lord for what equally occupies and concerns us all, that is, for the good air for our breathing and for the abundance of the fruits of the earth. How can we, who live on earth, not pray for this? How can we not ask the Almighty to bless our fields and cornfields? Is it not hard to see the vain labor of people in cultivating and fertilizing the land? Is it not sad in years of crop failure for villagers and city dwellers to be left without fruits, even without their daily bread! The calamities of crop failure can be very severe, for they befall everyone, both small and old, and young and adult. Remember, beloved, that without the blessing of heaven there is neither vegetation nor fertility of the earth. The Lord Himself "sends us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17).

b) Here is an example from the lives of saints, showing that the abundance of fruits of the earth is the work of God's blessing. The Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn happened to be with the archbishop, and the Saint (this was blessed Gregory, brother of the great John), letting him go after a conversation, told him that the elder should visit him in a week. "If it pleases the Lord," answered the Saint, "on Friday of the first week of the Fast of the Holy Apostles I will come to your shrine in a sleigh." The archbishop was surprised, but did not ask for an explanation. On the night before the indicated Friday, deep snow fell and there was a severe frost. The Saint arrived to the bishop in a sleigh. The archshepherdr grieved that the frost could damage the grain. "Do not grieve, holy lord," said the Saint, "we must thank the Lord for His mercy, for the frost destroyed the worms that would have ruined the grain at its roots, and the snow only watered the thirsty earth." Indeed, the next day the heat of the day melted the snow, and the water watered the dry earth, and worms that had died from the frost were found at the roots of the rye; as a result of both, there was such a harvest of grain as had not been seen for a long time. In grateful memory of this event, on Friday of the first week of Peter's Fast, a religious procession is held from Novgorod to the Khutyn Monastery. ("Russian Saints, Venerated by the Whole Church or Locally," Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov. Part III.).

c) Saint Dimitri of Rostov develops the idea that without God’s blessing no efforts of a farmer are accompanied by success.

“When the forefather Isaac lived in the Philistine city of Gerar,” says Saint Dimitri of Rostov, “he sowed wheat in the fields he had rented from the Philistines, and the harvest yielded him a hundredfold. It is amazing that in a time of famine, in a barren summer, in a foreign land, Isaac sowed in someone else’s rented fields, and despite all this, he reaped a hundredfold, while the fields of all the other farmers of Gerar produced a very meager harvest. Where did the Gerar fields rented by Isaac get such fertility? Let us listen to what Holy Scripture says about Isaac: 'He got a hundredfold of barley that summer, and God blessed him' (Gen. 26:12). Here is the power of the fertility of the earth in God’s blessing on Isaac, in the fact that God blessed him! See how fruitful is the field of God’s blessing. Learn from this example, Christian farmers, who eat your bread in the sweat of your brow! Strive first of all to be worthy of God’s blessing, if you want your fields to bring forth an abundant harvest. The earth bears fruit when it is good in itself, and is well cultivated, sown with good seeds, and at the same time sufficiently watered and warmed by the warm rays of the sun, fanned by the beneficial air; but if there is no blessing of God upon it, all this has little meaning.”

III. Brethren! If you wish to have God's blessing on your labors, which you endure in the sweat of your brow, then be righteous and pleasing to God, as Isaac was righteous and pleasing to God, and God will bless your fields and the works of your hands. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.